7 WCW Champions Who Never Became WWE Champions (And Why)

The big boys didn't always play well outside of Atlanta...

Jeff Jarrett Buff Bagwell Shane Douglas Vince Russo
WWE.com

Ex-WCW stalwarts like Bill Goldberg, Booker T, Ric Flair, The Giant and Chris Benoit all went on to capture World Titles in WWE. Other notable WCW Champions, such as Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, Randy Savage, Bret Hart and Sid Vicious, were all WWF Heavyweight Champs first, but they too tasted success in both companies.

Meanwhile, some of the biggest names in WCW history didn't.

The question is: why? Why didn't those who scaled the mountain in one promotion do the same when working for Vince McMahon? Were they never viewed as top stars? Did they arrive in WWE too late to make the same kind of impact they had before? Were their chances ruined by terrible booking or characters that undermined them?

Truthfully, it's all that and more. Looking back on the lineage of WCW's World Title from the belt's creation in January 1991 (following WCW's split from the NWA) right up until the organisation's end just over a full decade later, there's a handful of titleholders who should have been bigger successes when they inevitably started working for the WWF/WWE.

What went wrong, and why?

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Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.